Christmas in March

A couple of things about this particular blog as well as the others, in general. I left these pics in the small format to add a bit of interest to the layout. Remember, though, all you have to do is click on the picture and it will open up into a larger format. Click the "back" button to go back to the blog and continue on as before.

Now, on to a Christmas present we'll share with you.

We left the anchorage in Charlotte Amalie harbor and decided to break up the trip back to the BVI into 2 legs. In doing so, we decided to anchor in Christmas Cove, on the West side of Great St. James Island. The island is not that large...almost 1 1/2 miles in length and 1/2 mile wide. Christmas Cove is a favorite anchorage for many of the sailors we've met. Now, we see why! The water was really clear, the undersea life was spectacular and the anchorage was quite calm.

 

Here we are, with the island of St. Thomas in the background

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These pics are of some of the shoreline along Great St. James...we could see down to 30' in most areas without much cloudiness in the water.

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The green sea turtle on the left had a large remora attached to it's back. The one on the right was a much younger and smaller one...about 2' long.

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The coral formations below were so nice, with lots of varieties of fish, sea urchins, coral and anemones.

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The upper 2 pics are of a spotted ray, about 3' wing tip to wing tip, with a tail over 5' long. The middle pics are of 2 stingrays caught in the act of being stingrays. They were smaller than the spotted ray. The lower left is of some starfish, each of which is about 9" across. The area where they were at had over 100 of them in an oval area of sand about 60' across. The lower right is of a school of ballyhoo, a small fish (about 10") that has a long needle-like snout. It is a favorite baitfish for fishermen to rig up their trolling lines with.

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To add some special wrap to our Christmas present, a section of the Rolex Regatta was in action right outside the mouth of the cove, with 2 of the corner markers close by us. We watched scores of boats turn around the markers and then sail down wind with their spinnakers flying. We even saw a couple of close encounters of some boats right near the turn of one of the markers. As a side note, the BVI Spring Regatta takes place soon, and I will be "rail meat" for the boat Toddy is racing. If I'm lucky, maybe I will get to crank a winch or something.

Back...to St. Thomas...again!

When the seas won't stop moving...the rocking, pitching boat won't stop doing it's own thing...and looking at the shifting, tilting horizon only makes it worse...there's only one thing left for you to do...barf! Poor Karen! I would've been dead meat if there were photos to accompany the above, so let it suffice that she was not a happy camper after the first 7 hours of sailing back from Puerto Rico to Culebra. Needless to say, she was better off once the boat was anchored and stopped moving. The sail wasn't really that bad, but we were headed into the light winds and moderate waves, as well as the Gulf Stream current...and we had to tack back and forth across the usually semi-rough Vieques Sound. This required twice the time required to go the other way. Ahhh...the life of a sailor.

Anyway, we made it to Culebra, spending two days of recovery there. Being a smart man, I elected to continue using the "iron sail" to motor to St. Thomas. We anchored in Brewer's Bay right next to the St. Thomas airport, enjoying the B757's, B737's and misc. other aircraft land and takeoff. We decided to only spend the one night there and moved over to the harbor in Charlotte Amalie the next day. Once there we enjoyed an unusually quiet and smooth anchorage. I'm sure it's due to more experience on our part...we are much less indecisive of our anchorage location. Now, we just make a decision of where, drop the anchor, set it and be done with it. No messin' around.

Some of the mega yachts in Yacht Haven Grande Marina

We spent some time at the local boat yard, Kmart, and other places we've missed (including McDonald's). I even had time to take out the engine's injectors and had them overhauled. The marina here, Yacht Haven Grande, is right next to the cruise ship dock in the main harbor. This is a different cruise ship dock than the one mentioned a few weeks ago. It appears that on a busy cruise ship day, St. Thomas can harbor at least 7 cruise ships between the different docks and anchorages.

"Kismet" a very expensive charter yacht

We (I, actually) thought it would be fun to play a nautical version of "slap the bull" like in the movie " Wild Hogs". The owner/crew of Kismet didn't see me that evening, so no foul, right?

Our evenings seem to always end with a spectacular sunset of some kind. This one Karen took overlooking the marina office at Yacht Haven Grande, from our boat anchored just off of the cruise ship dock and marina. She seems to always catch just the right moment or scene on our camera.

Puerto Rico, day 2

Our next adventure in Puerto Rico, and the 2nd marina we visited for our boat-storage questions was Palmas Del Mar.

Wow!

It was absolutely beautiful. The grounds are landscaped so nice with waterfalls, golf courses, walking and bicycling paths. The facility has condos, hotels with some of the designated driving areas for golf carts only. Oh yes, I forgot, it has a marina. There isn't room for 1,000 boats, but it sure was nice.

Did I mention swimming pools? The marina has it's own little lounging area next to the clubhouse...

that includes it's own pool...

with a professional wait staff ready to tend to all of your alcohol and hoighty-toighty snack needs! Rumor has it that he likes to wear tropical shirts to liven up the quests' view. He specializes in small, finger-sized fishy foods.

The marina manager is looking over her domain in the unfinished clubhouse. She anticipates that she will be able to accomodate our vessel in one of the nicest areas of the marina...for 1/2 the going rate. We'll think about it!

On our way back to the boat, we saw a nice view of the Eastern mountains of Puerto Rico. This area includes El Yunque rainforest. The literature claims it is the only rainforest in the U.S. I guess some of the areas in Hawaii aren't in the same category. Being an ex-Washington State resident, I seem to recall the claim to the Olympic National Forest which is classified, I believe, as a rainforest. I know, for a fact, it rains there.

Our plan is to revisit Puerto Rico via rental car to see many sights, such as the Arecibo radio telescope (featured in Contact and one of the James Bond movies) as well as the forts and sights of San Juan.

After our visit to Puerto Rico, we sailed back to Culebra, then on to St. Thomas. We'll pick up on those blogs next.